SHORTCHANGED AGAIN (June 27, 1960)

PART 1Jun 27, 1960

SHORTCHANGED AGAIN

There is a catch in the latest an- nouncement by the Tennessee Valley authority, just as there usually is when it talks about finances. During the fis- cal year 1959, the TVA reported re- cently, it made payments totaling $6,312,718, in lieu of taxes, to seven states and 137 counties. This was $412,. 000 mcre than the year before and pre- cisely $4,996,197 more-TVA stressed- than the minimum required by its charter

To the unwary reader, this might sug- gest that the TVA is paying more than its share of local taxes and doing nobly by the taxpayer.

Well, it is hard to make accurate comparisons between TVA's figures and those of a private company: but the production of electricity is a reasonable measure of a company s size. TVA turns out about 15 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year. It paid 6.3 million dollars in lieu of local taxes, ,and the local taxes paid by the companies which distribute its power came to about 9.9

million. Total local taxes, 16.2 million dollars.

In Chicago the Commonwealth Edi- son company, a private concern, pro- duced 21 billion kilowatt hours of power in 1959, or about 30 per cent more than the TVA. What did it pay in state and local taxes? Something over 54 million dollars, not to mention 58 million in federal incomes taxes.

As a whole, the country s private power companies turn out about 650 billion kilowatt hours a year and pay state and local taxes of about 850 mil- lion dollars-nearly half again as much, proportionately, as the combined pay- ments of TVA and its distributors.